About

Hi, I’m Loes.

(pronounced as the Spanish word ‘luz’ btw)

Born in the Netherlands 1979 and grown up in Austria from the age of six.

Holding a master degree of communications with the focus on audio-vision and the minor subject art history with practical experience on film production, I was searching for a way how to express my visual creativity in my free time without being dependent on a team.

That’s how I came to photography about ten years ago – being more or a less inseparable from traveling. After some shorter city trips and my first longer oversea travels as a solo backpacker I soon realized that both were more than just a hobby and I decided to take a gap-(half)year traveling through South-East-Asia starting end of 2012.

Returning to Europe with a pre-bought flight ticket I promised myself to do this kind of travel again, but without a return ticket.

So that’s where I am right now. I got rid of almost all my possessions, which did not fit into my backpack and since March 2017 I’m traveling around the world.

My travel style

It should be obvious that – as a solo long-term-traveler – I have to look at the budget. Picking cheap travel destinations, traveling slower to get better price conditions at simple guesthouses and using public transport and/or walking a lot.

I left Austria pretty much without a plan, where to go, and I’m choosing my stops on the way. Now and then I find myself also traveling in more expensive countries, where I try to cut down the costs by planning these trips more thorough and limit the travel time.

I’m not a big fan of the discussion if people are traveling ‘off-the-beaten-track’ or just following the crowd. There is good reason for some places in this world being very touristy, there is something special about these. So I’m not forcing myself to find a way around these infamous spots, but of course I try not to stay longer as needed in areas, where a lot of tourists spend their holidays.

I think it’s the healthy combination of both, after a couple of weeks of local life it can be good to treat yourself within a ‘western tourist bubble’ for a couple of days and have your pizza, your glass of wine and your goat cheese to be able to hit the road again.

My photography style

Actually my way to photograph is corresponding with my travel style: slow, solo and I don’t force myself.

I prefer to be alone when photographing – to be able to take my time, to observe & enjoy the location and slowly starting to make pictures. It might happen that a certain spot does not do anything to me and I don’t push myself to make photos if so. On the other hand photographing can be almost meditative for me, I can completely forget myself & time and just realize after hours that my eyes need rest & I should eat and stuff like that.

The subjects of my images are also very much related to my travel style. I enjoy to shoot at tranquil places – landscapes, animals, details of nature and everything which is related to the culture of a certain country. When it’s about people I enjoy more a way of ‘street photography’, because I am interested how people are interacting natural with their environment.

Also the fact that I am contributing my photos on stock content sites might have influenced my photography, as I of course also think about what customers need.

What else?

water lover (in all forms – lakes, ocean, rivers) & love swimming in it || scuba diver || winter hater (at least when it’s lasting longer than the two weeks around Christmas), but a great fan of the tropical climate || Gouda cheese lover (the real one, not this plastic stuff) || hating it to drive cars myself, but love walking and biking (on the Dutch way, so preferable when it’s flat)